Bruins Daily Player of the Week: Feb. 11-17, 2013

Brad Marchand is having one heck of a season and had another productive week for the Black and Gold.

The third-year forward scored the game-winning power-play goal last night versus the Winnipeg and tied the game versus the New York Rangers in a comeback for the ages at the TD Garden last Tuesday. The “Nose Face Killah” also received bonus points for making Jack Edwards almost leap off level nine after beating Henrik Lundqvist to steal a point and force overtime.

Marchand leads the Bruins (9-2-2) with eight goals (8th in the NHL) and has a ridiculous 44.4% shot percentage (8 goals on 18 shots) which ranks him fourth in the league. It seems like when the Bruins need that extra lift it has been Marchand that has always been there.

Last year, it was Tyler Seguin, but this year Marchand is finding the back of the net at will it seems like. He scored a career-best in goals last season (28) and he may break that this year even in a shortened season.

While on a breakaway during last night’s game, Marchand was tripped up and wanted to be awarded a penalty shot, but that wasn’t the case.

“I was hoping for a penalty shot, so I was a little upset (when one wasn’t called), but we were excited to be on the power-play,” Marchand said. “We knew we could get some chances and what happened was we scored.”

Through his first 12 games last season, Marchand scored only two goals. This year he has eight (missing one game to injury). A fun stat for you is that Marchand has a better shooting percentage than Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce (41.5%). Think about that.

The left-winger has a very quick release and his finishing ability this year was that of Seguin’s last year almost impossible to stop. Marchand will most likely cool off as the season wears on, but I bet Bruins fans were saying that after his first few games and Marchand is still lighting the lamp nearly every game.

Marchand has nine points in 12 games while sporting a plus-five rating. He is logging serious ice time as well and it seems like at this point, nothing can stop this “little ball of hate.”